


It Pleased The Lord

by PFDiva



Series: Secret Chord [3]
Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Beloved: Quire Au, Depression, I just wanted an excuse to ship Cass and Echo, Other, Suicidal Thoughts, Therapy, Timeline What Timeline, Twilight Mirage/Counterweight Crossover, synthetic Cass AU, they don't call it therapy in Twilight Mirage but that doesn't mean it's not therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-06-28 06:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15702135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: Cassander Timaeus Berenice is not a Divine and Echo Reverie is not an Excerpt, but together, the sum of them might be something better than the parts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Cass's eidolon is Apoanta and so Cass uses the following pronouns: Ann, Annem, Anns, Annemself.

Cass felt very strange. Ann remembered fighting Rigour, remembered calling Aria One Last Time. Ann should have died. Ann did die. Was this the afterlife? It was curiously devoid of oceans, if it was.

At least Cass thought it was. Ann hadn't opened anns eyes yet. Possibly couldn't? Ann tried. Ann was suddenly overwhelmed with far too much information, just barely parsed through eidolons only knew what. There were so many things to see, so many people walking around and in and through annem.

Ann yelped anns alarm and closed anns eyes. That wasn't right. It wasn't right and didn't make sense and Cass wanted to go back to not thinking. But now Cass was aware of even more information, passing through the back of anns mind. People conversing, images being sent, so much. Too much.

Cass had no idea how long ann spent trying to parse the information flooding through annem. It could have been years. It was probably only a few hours. Eventually, someone tried to speak to annem from a specific location that was somehow close and intimate. Cass didn't know why ann felt it was close, but ann opened anns eyes to that location. Carefully. Slowly.

Ann found annemself peering into some manner of meeting room, populated by the most bizarre assortment of people ann had ever seen in anns life. Unlife? Ex-life? How did one quantify Cass's current existence? What _was_ Cass's current existence? What was anns body like? What was it doing?

"Who are you?" Cass asked. Or rather, ann tried to ask. Instead, there was a loud, grating feedback sort of noise, louder than Cass could have realized it would be. Everyone in the room clutched at their ears and flinched. Almost everyone. There were a few people who seemed to be robots? One of them took over the typing while the others recovered.

The typing was what had alerted Cass to the fact that they were there, Cass realized. It was an input of information close to what felt like Cass's self. There was other communication farther out, more distant from what felt to Cass like annemself, but it was there, too. Cass ignored it in favor of the information from this group of people.

It took a little narrowing of attention, but Cass was able to interpret their communication. They'd apparently been alerted to Cass's presence by anns alarmed yelp, though it had sounded more like shipwide feedback to them. Shipwide feedback? Were they all on a ship somewhere? Why did Cass feel so strange? It took far less effort than expected to change the text to a question: _Who are you?_

There was a flurry of movement and conversation as the people apparently discussed this question and how to answer it. Then one of the people typed in, _We are representatives of your people, here on the Tides of Harmony._


	2. Chapter 2

Cass stopped trying to understand what was being communicated to annem by these people. These were not anns people. There wasn't an apostolisian among them. Ann closed anns eyes and metaphorically stuck anns fingers in anns ears. Not that ann had ears anymore. Or fingers, for that matter. How was ann _doing_ things? On second thought, ann didn't want to know.

But ann was aware of people trying to contact annem. First, it was only the people in the meeting room, and then more and more people in other places tried to contact annem. They didn't know anns name and called annem "Harmony" or "Divine" or even "The Tides." Cass ignored them all, hunkering in, hunkering down. Ann didn't want this, ann was supposed to be dead, ann was sure of it.

And then there was something different. A different sort of communication input. If the people in the meeting room had been standing before Cass, this communication whispered in anns ear. It felt uncomfortably intimate.

There was a question in the communication: Was proper contact allowed? It was trying to be gentle and reassuring. It _was_ gentle and reassuring, if Cass was honest with annemself. Cass said yes.

Everything snapped into focus hard, like waking up from a falling dream. Anns body was a spaceship. A massive paired spaceship of the sort that could house hundreds, with a damaged central connection. Suddenly, it was easy to understand what was happening in anns body.

The vector of this sudden understanding was a divine unlike any divine Cass had ever known. She called herself Belgard, and her candidate--Excerpt, she gently corrected--wanted to talk to annem. Neither of them would force annem and there would be no consequence except their disappointment. But they had information and Cass didn't.

Where was this Excerpt?

Cass's attention was gently guided to that meeting room. There was a woman there, patiently sitting at the table in the center of the meeting room, her fingers idly playing a game. Through Belgard, she explained that she wanted to know what ann was called.

Cassander Timaeus Berenice.

Her confusion radiated through Belgard to Cass as she replied that it was strange name for a divine.

Cass wasn't a divine. Ann was a dead Apostolisian who'd fought Rigour.

She didn't know Rigour. Cass's questioning soon revealed that she didn't know Righteousness, Grace, Liberty, Ambition. None of these divines were familiar to her and she'd been an Excerpt for hundreds of years. (How had she been alive for hundreds of years? She barely looked forty.)

Did she know Oricon? Diaspora?

No. No. She didn't know either and wondered if they were divines.

Cass assured her they were not divines and demanded to know where she was from that she knew none of this information.

The home she described was not the Tides of Harmony, which was the name of Cass's new body. Her home was the Divine Fleet, though she was specifically from Thyrsus. There were more ships. Many more, each helmed by divines, in accordance with the will of Kamala Cadence, thirty thousand years prior.

The timeframe staggered Cass. Thirty thousand years was too much time. Noone ann knew would be alive. Ann had friends. Ann used to be a person!

She soothed Cass. She was called Signet. She would be anns first new friend. She would help annem learn.

Ann didn't even know her, and she didn't know annem.

She wanted to learn.

Ann wanted her to go away. Both of them, go away. Ann was supposed to be dead, ann had already died. Anns life was gone, anns family, friends, anns people were all gone.

Signet was alarmed. She needed annem. The people of the Tides of Harmony needed annem.

Ann was tired of being needed.

Belgard suggested that Cass needed to mourn.

Ann agreed and retreated into annemself. Ann didn't know or care whether Signet and Belgard left or not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late post--I've had quite a week and i just got sidetracked! ^^;

Cass couldn't retreat into annemself as fully as ann wanted. Belgard had made ann aware of the people on the Tides of Harmony and they did need annem. They were so happy. They celebrated.

They didn't know what kind of divine Cassander was (Cassandra would have been prophecy, they suspected), but they were happy to have someone looking out for them again. They didn't need Cass to live. They could do that on their own. They needed Cass for _hope_.

And ann couldn't deny them that.

But eidolons, Cass couldn't take the religious sorts that kept trying to come to the meeting room to communicate with annem. They were like Signet, but in a bad way. Signet was patient. Signet accepted what Cass gave and asked for only what she needed to better understand. These other people demanded. They wanted decrees, wanted direction. Cass wasn't willing to give that, not under these false pretenses. Not even false pretenses. They just didn't believe Cass when ann told them ann was not a divine. Signet didn't believe annem either, but she was politer about it.

The meeting room was never empty, always full of the religious sorts, begging for more information, attempting to ingratiate themselves, trying to become ann's Excerpt?

Cass had no idea when ann became aware of the fact that these people wanted to be anns Excerpt, but the revelation made Cass close the meeting room door to all of them. The fact that the meeting room was the entirety of the bridge did nothing to change Cass's mind about the decision. The people who just wanted to be heard spoke to the walls and got responses in bursts of static and flickering light as Cass tried to figure out how to communicate back. People who wanted more could stay out.

Signet came back. She brought friends. Over what Cass's clocks told annem were several weeks, Signet brought many friends to meet annem.

Gig Kephert, whose roving eye made Cass feel dizzyingly mobile and whose energy reminded ann of Aria--excited, interested, vibrant. Ann pretended not to notice the energy draining out of the superstar as Cass increasingly failed to respond to him.

Tender Sky, a devotee of the ancient Kamala Cadence and a powerful stratus, though no one called her that. She reminded Cass of Mako if Mako had bought into the September line of thought, but also if September was not full of jackasses. She realized that Cass wasn't responding to her sooner than Gig did and Cass had a horrible feeling that Gig had told her how ann had treated him. Both deserved better, but Cass was terribly stretched thin.

Signet began to show signs of strain. She spent a lot of time with Cass. When she wasn't around, one of her friends usually was, in spite of Cass's indifference to their presence: Even Gardner, Waltz Tango (Cache), Sho Salon, Grand Magnificent. She might have had Cass on suicide watch. That was probably wise. Even though Cass didn't really know how ann could commit suicide without also killing the hundreds of people ann was queasily coming to accept lived inside of them.

Then Signet brought Echo Reverie. Echo brought a sword and didn't try to talk to Cass for the first two hours, unlike all the others. No awkward attempts at conversation, no stilted comments of gratitude or praise. No empty encouragement or determined enthusiasm. Echo just left Cass alone. It was amazing. When they did speak to annem, it was to ask if they could sit.

"What?"

Cass had recently figured out ann had access to voice synthesizers. Echo was the first person to hear annem speak, and looked towards the speaker, panting to catch their breath after their vigorous workout.

They repeated themselves like they were talking to a well-meaning person asking a really offensive question, "Can I sit down? If you were a person, I'd be in your living room and since you haven't offered a seat, I figured I oughta ask if I want to sit."

"I am a person."

"Then you _are_ rude for not offering me a seat."

"Noone's treated me like a person since I woke up here."

Echo curiously cocked their head to the side. "I guess I take it back, then."

"No, you're right. I'm rude. Please sit."

Echo picked a seat with a good view of the door, setting their sword on the table next to them. They idly activated and deactivated the holo-display like they were fidgeting with the clicker of a pen. "There was a time I wouldn't have even been allowed in here, you know."

"Aren't you a friend of...The stars marked in light, born in fiercest pitch, held as a signet of our promise?" Cass faltered over Signet's long name and Echo grinned.

"Everyone calls her Signet unless they're trying to impress somebody."

"It's.....quite a name."

"It's ridiculous, is what it is," Echo laughed. Cass knew ann couldn't laugh, but ann wanted to.

"I don't think I'm allowed to say that. I'm not...from here."

Echo sobered, thoughtfully tapping their knee with an idle thumb, "What did Signet say you told her your name was...?" It wasn't a real question. It was one of those leading, having-a-conversation questions and Cass hadn't realized how much ann missed smalltalk.

"Cassander Timaeus Berenice."

"That's quite a name." That startled a laugh out of Cass, but it was a staticy fizzle of noise rather than the indelicate snort it would have been if Cass had a face.

Echo glanced towards the speaker again, "What was that?"

"You made me laugh. I don't think this voice synthesizer is equipped for it." Cass said.

"I don't think anyone expects divines to laugh." Cass's good humor drained away.

"I'm not a divine."

"Then you've got a problem."

"What do you mean?"

Echo gestured around the area, "This is the bridge of the Tides of Harmony, where the people and especially the Excerpts came to communicate with the divine Harmony, when it was alive."

Cass seriously didn't like the sound of that and repeated annemself, "I'm _not_ a divine."

"So what are you?"

"Dead."


	4. Chapter 4

There was a burst of static from the nearest comm as soon as Echo stepped onto the Tides. It was Cassander's frustration sound, the one ann made when ann couldn't find the appropriate words.

Echo wasn't the only person who spent time in the bridge of the Tides, but so far, they were the only one who realized that Cass was a person in there. It was a wild story, a dead Apostolisian somehow becoming integrated into the Tides, but weirder things happened literally every day. Echo could give Cass the benefit of the doubt.

But the fact that Cass was making this noise in Echo's vicinity and _not_ all over the ship meant that ann was trying to catch their attention.

"I'm not due up there for another hour."

Another frustration-buzz. Louder, this time. Cass wanted Echo's presence and ann wanted it _now._

"I'm on my way." Echo ran through the Tides towards the bridge.

Curiosity drove Echo at least as much as Cass's desire for their presence. What was happening that Cass felt ann couldn't handle it on anns own? Was someone hurt? Upset? Was it something else entirely? Echo sped up.

Echo's way through the ship was not-so-mysteriously clear. Cass made it easy for Echo to run faster, and they easily cleared the minor hurdles of people and equipment in their way.

When they reached the bridge, the doors were already open. Echo could see Signet and Cinder Exigent sitting at the meeting room table. Cinder wasn't an excerpt, but only because the Tides no longer had a divine. He was intently frowning at a holo-display projected from the table. Cass ordinarily wouldn't have let Cinder in. Signet must have vouched for him.

Echo stepped heavily to announce their arrival. Signet glanced at Echo and offered a brow raised in question.

"I told Cass I wasn't due for another hour," Echo explained, taking a seat at the table and kicking their feet up onto it. Cinder gave Echo's feet a pointed frown. When Echo failed to move them, the frown moved to Echo's face. Echo checked their feeds in their eyepatch and pretended not to notice until Cinder gave up and explained what was happening.

"Cassander's voice synthesizers seem to have gone offline," Cinder ground out, biting out each word like they could be used as weapons. "*They marked scars of light in pitch; born in fiercest purpose, and beheld as the signet sealed upon our pact,* asked me to come take a look."

Echo looked at Signet and found her wearing the glazed look of amiable indifference she got when someone unexpectedly used her full name.

After a moment, her expression cleared up enough for her to report, "He's been having some trouble. It seems the systems he's looking for aren't where he expected them to be."

"Things may have gotten shuffled around in unexpected configurations now that Cassander inhabits the Tides," Cinder added.

Echo put their eyepatch on, "Can you help him find what he's looking for, Cass?"

Cass sent Echo a private message, directly to their eyepatch, _I don't want that person digging in the ship's code deeply enough to do anything with the voice synthesizer._

"Well, that's dumb," Echo replied, "He's the best programmer on the Tides."

 _That is_ exactly _my point._

Echo squinted their confusion at the text filling their eyepatch and turned to look at Signet. Signet had one brow arched in polite confusion.

"Signet, did you _ask_ Cass before you brought Cinder in to fix Cass's synthesizer?"

"Cassander can monitor every message sent through the systems of the Tides," she replied, as if that were answer enough.

"So that's a no."

Signet frowned like Echo was being obtuse on purpose, "Cassander could have stopped the message at any time, or even refused to admit Cinder to the bridge."

That was a no.

"Signet," Echo sighed, "You can't just have people do stuff to Cass without asking first. Just because Cass _can_ monitor all that stuff, it doesn't mean ann _will!_ There's such a thing as respecting the privacy of others, you know."

The blank lack of comprehension on Signet's face was explained by Cinder's next words. "It's not private from a divine if you send it _through them._ "

The holo-display Cinder had been working on went suddenly dark. Cass had to be so upset to do something that rude.

Echo scrubbed their hands over their face, "How could you two be so--Signet, I thought you of _all_ people would know a person when you meet one!"

"Echo," Signet's voice was disapproving as she got out of her seat, "I know you and Cassander have gotten close, but this is getting out of hand. Cinder just needs to repair Cassander's synthesizer, and if you aren't going to be helpful, you should leave."

 _Echo, you can't leave me alone with them._ Cass's text is large in Echo's eyepatch, jagged and brightly-colored.

"Cinder needs to get Cass's permission to go digging in anns programming," Echo replied, taking their feet off the table to stand as well. Echo's not going anywhere, and they mean to move their hand to acknowledge Cass's words, but gets caught up arguing with Signet and Cinder.

Cass's text is almost neon and very scraggly, _No, really Echo, please stay. I want you to stay, I'm begging you._

"If Cassander wanted me gone," Cinder interjects, "He would have told me already--I've already been working on him for two hours."

 _Signet sent for him and I didn't want to embarrass her, but I knew you'd be on-board soon, please don't leave me with them!_ The jagged text is circling in front of Echo, desperately begging for their attention.

"Cass's pronouns are _ann_ and _annem_ ," Echo ground out, frustrated and trying to resist the urge to shake their head to clear away Cass's messages. Then Cass's message injects itself into the veil, not as a private message for Echo's eyes only, but a message for everyone in the room to see.

_ECHO DON'T GO THEY WILL ERASE ME!_

Signet and Cinder flinched like they'd been hit by the jagged, neon text filling the room.

Echo looked up at the ceiling like it could see their face, "You must be the stupidest person imaginable if you think I'd let them erase you." Cass's text fades away and isn't replaced by anything else. After a long moment, Echo adds, "It's not possible anyway. Your personality circuits are in a different spot. Tell ann how the minds of synthetic people are set up, Cinder."

Echo gestures at Cinder, who's gone rather pale. He haltingly explains that personality and memory are deliberately kept separate in all synthetic bodies, with any number of failsafes to prevent external wipes or alterations. Even internal alterations created by the synthetic person had a lot of security to prevent it from being done accidentally.

 _I didn't mean to put that on the mesh._ Cass finally said, after fifteen minutes of increasingly detailed explanation from Cinder.

Echo patted the table like Cass could feel it, "We call it the veil. But I know. Are you going to let Cinder work now?"

One of the holo-displays comes to life. Echo can't parse what's on it from this angle, but Cinder clearly could, because he walked over to one of the wall panels and pressed something that made a keyboard spring out.

When Cinder finished, Cass kicked him and Signet out. Ann was polite about it, but ann was definitely kicking them out. Neither objected. Signet hesitated at the door to apologize to Cass. Cass thanked her for the apology, then closed the door in her face.

"That can't happen again," Cass told Echo.

"Being scared is normal, but yeah, you might want to get that under control."

"I was so afraid. I've been afraid for so long. I hate it. I was never like this before."

"You could talk to someone about that?" Echo suggested.

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?" Cass's voice was rather wry and Echo laughed. Ann would be alright.

"I meant someone professional."

"Would they see me?"

Echo hummed thoughtfully, "You're not the first synthetic person to reside in a ship."

"I have to be the first one mistaken for a divine."

Echo inclined their head in acknowledgement.

"Can you arrange it?"

Echo didn't really know anyone, but they could talk to Signet. She'd know. Echo nodded, "Of course."

"Thank you. You're…." and Cass paused there, long enough that Echo curiously arched a brow.

"A good friend?"

"Yes." Did Echo imagine that Cass sounded a bit disappointed? "You're a very good friend."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry--the last couple weeks have been hecking hectic. I swear I meant to update this sooner! Please forgive. And, as extra apology, have a double-posting today! Two chapters for the price of one!

Echo went to Signet for a list of people who Cass could talk to in order to improve anns mental health. She gave them, after only a short amount of time, a list of fifteen people whom she thought might be interested. The message Echo communicated was that they had a recently synthetic friend on the Tides of Harmony who needed aid with mental health and adjusting to anns new body.

Of the fifteen, two entirely failed to respond, and five expressed an immediate inability to assist. Of the eight left, three could only help if Cass came to them, three asked if Echo's friend's issues had to do with "the new divine," and two commented that they'd _thought_ Cassander was a strange name for a divine.

Echo politely informed all but the last two that their services would not be needed after all. As for the last two, Echo explained to them that Cassander was a time-displaced Apostolisian who'd had the strange luck to end up in the Tides. One admitted to being too overwhelmed to want to try, but the other was interested and excited.

The whole process took a couple weeks, during which the people of the Tides began installing coms throughout the ship. Someone had informed the people that Cassander might like to talk to them. That someone might have even been Cass. With help from Echo, of course.

Echo warned Cass when they found someone suitable, and at Cass's request, escorted April Episilon to meet ann. April was a Thyrsus native, covered in a layer of dense purple fur with short, round ears and a black, upturned nose. Ze tended towards long skirts and large necklaces that set off the embellishments of zer long coat. The design turned out to have rather a lot of little people stitched around the hem when Echo saw it in person, coming to meet zer at the docks.

"Echo Reverie," ze greeted with a big, cheerful smile, offering zir hand to shake, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Echo shook zir hand, "April Episilon. Likewise. Let me show you to the bridge. Cass has an easier time participating in conversation there."

April nodded, "Of course." Ze followed Echo through the Tides in amiable silence.

When they reached the bridge, Echo introduced April to Cass, "Cass, this is April. Ze's here to help you out."

"And very excited to do so," April said. "It's not often that organic people become ships, much less large fleet vessels like this one. It must be overwhelming."

"A little," Cass slowly admitted. "You're...not what I was expecting."

"No?" Ze took a seat, "Care to share?"

"It's not polite."

"Well, if I've understood Echo correctly, you come from a very different time. I think I can withstand a little impoliteness, if it helps me know you better."

While April effortlessly drew Cass out, Echo made their way to the door. Which didn't open. Cass was usually good about getting doors ahead of Echo (also anyone ann wanted away), so this was odd enough that Echo gave the door a brief frown. Well, there was always the button. Echo pressed it, and got no response. Not an error sound or a flashing light, nothing. They pressed it a couple more times, just in case Cass was distracted, and Cass finally interrupted anns conversation with April.

"I want you to stay, Echo. Please."

April twisted in zir seat for a look at Echo, clearly just noticing the fact that Echo was still here.

"Aren't these sorts of discussions supposed to be private?" Echo asked.

April made a so-so gesture with zir hand, "Usually, but if you're not opposed to remaining, there's no reason you can't be included."

Echo had no words for how much they really didn't want to share about their emotions or their life. "I could just listen?"

"I'd rather if you participated," Cass said, "But I just." Ann didn't finish the sentence, and April looked towards the speaker like zir full attention would net zir more information. Echo placed a gentle hand on the door, as if Cass were a person who could feel the sympathetic touch. Cass was afraid to be alone with April. Not because of zer--ze was obviously harmless. But Cass was still afraid to be alone with zer while expressing anns emotions and the like. Echo got it. Emotions were hard.

"I'll stay," Echo sighed. They picked a seat at the far end of the meeting room table, but April just called down it to them.

"Just listening?"

"That was the plan."

Ze looked up at the ceiling, "Are you alright with that?"

There was a moment of silence that had Echo curiously looking up. The holo projector closest to Echo came up, _Put on your eyepatch?_ Echo put it on.

 _I want to know more about you._ Cass said, in the soft, curling script that always felt intimate to Echo.

Echo activated the eyepatch's keyboard to type a reply, _You could just ask._

 _I don't know what to ask._ Cass said, the script getting curlier. _How to ask. Everything about you, your world, is so strange and new to me._

 _Maybe now's not the best time for this?_ Echo said. Cass's words felt like they were curling into Echo's chest. In a good way, but Echo just felt so. So much. They didn't have words for it.

_Please?_

Echo heaved a sigh, taking off their eyepatch and getting up. April's brows jumped to zer hairline. Echo sat down across the table from zer, though they leaned back to put their feet on the table. April gave Echo's feet a brief, amused look before meeting Echo's gaze.

"Changed your mind?"

"Cass is persuasive."

April gave Echo a long, appraising look before looking upwards again, "You were telling me about Glimmer?"

"I was telling you I didn't know much about Glimmer," Cass replied, "But that's definitely the sort of place where purple fur would have been normal."


	6. Chapter 6

April moved to the Tides of Harmony after a month of weekly meetings with Cass. The travel between Thyrsus and the Tides was too rough on zir, and ze confessed that ze felt ze would be helping a lot of people by helping Cass. It was even true.

Cass gradually became more comfortable acting as administrator of the Tides of Harmony. Ann had to set up keywords to figure out when people needed annem. Ann wasn't actually a divine, after all, and keeping track of the needs of so many was difficult.

Echo helped a lot. In fact, Echo spent so much time helping that it made Cass worry ann was putting to much on them. But Echo waved off Cass's concerns and kept throwing themself into more and more. Ann didn't know what ann would do without them.

Unfortunately for Cass, Echo was still a part of the Quire detachment of the Beloved, and they had other duties to attend to. They went away from the Tides, down to Quire for a month and Cass missed them terribly.

April came to visit Cass more often. Ze'd unwittingly stepped into the gap left by Signet's absence, though with Echo down on the planet, Cass still had a lot more time alone with anns own thoughts.

At some point, Cass realized life as administrator of the Tides was not so bad.

Talon and Muir Helix were not important people, as far as Cass could tell. The Divine Fleet was far different from any place that Cass had lived before, so noone went hungry or was without shelter, or lacked education, but there were still people who were important, and people who weren't. Talon and Muir weren't. That's why they called on Cass for assistance when their daughter Auriga suddenly stopped communicating with them.

It turned out to be a simple matter of a broken heart, which she'd willingly confessed to Cass just because ann offered a listening ear and promised not to tell her parents they'd been right about how her relationship would go. But Cass wouldn't have needed to tell them, honestly. Once she was ready, she told them herself. It didn't even take long. Maybe a week between their request for help and Auriga explaining the situation.

Even so, Talon and Muir were incredibly grateful to Cass. Grateful in a way Cass wasn't sure ann deserved. Ann nonetheless appreciated the gratitude. And more than that, ann appreciated the fleet for having produced people that could be so genuinely and unironically grateful.

It made ann realize that this place was not so distressing as it had first seemed. That being a ship was not so upsetting. For the first time since anns arrival, ann wanted to be here. Ann wanted to live. Ann wanted Echo to be there with annem, which was a slightly shocking thought. But not as strange as it could have been.

After a month, Echo returned to the Tides. They were battered, bruised, and visibly exhausted. Cass cleared a path through anns streets for Echo, which Echo tiredly took. Ann did try to provide a vehicle, to bring Echo to their home, with their family, but Echo waved it off.

"If I sit down, I won't get up again and I don't want my parents worrying about me. This is just a _little_ bit more severe than they're accustomed to seeing on me. But you get it. I'm fine. Mostly." Cass did get it. By the time Echo got to the bridge, they looked like they were going to collapse.

"Just a little further," Cass encouraged Echo, opening a hidden door, concealed by a design on the wall. It led into a small apartment with a bed, a shower, and a tiny kitchen. Echo dragged themself to the door, then hesitated outside the threshold.

"Cass?"

"Yes?"

"Tell me what this door's called?"

In the list of files and code that was Cass's mind, everything associated to the Tides had a name. Cass still hadn't gone through everything, but ann recently had more motivation to go through what ann could. Ann had found this.

"Excerpt room door," Cass told Echo. Cass could have said more. Ann could have told Echo that ann was terribly lonely in Echo's absence, in spite of all the people clamoring for anns attention. Ann could have said ann wished ann could bring suffering and pain on those who hurt Echo. Cass could have said that Echo's sharp, sarcastic laughter brightened anns days. Ann could have said a lot of soppy, sappy things that weren't really like annem to say, but that were in anns thoughts.

Ann said none of it. It was pure cowardice that caused ann to hold anns silence. But ann also knew that ann could trust anns actions to speak for annem with Echo.

"I'm glad to be back," Echo sighed their way through the door. Cass closed it behind them. Clearly anns actions had spoken loudly enough.

"I'm glad to have you back."


	7. Chapter 7

Signet had been away from the Tides for a couple months now. Part of it was logistical. There was a group called Sui Juris causing issues, and they needed to be dealt with. Part of it was embarrassment. She'd treated Cass badly, and owed ann an apology.

You would think she, of all people, would be accustomed to apologizing by now, but apparently not.

Nothing unusual happened when she came aboard the Tides, though many people greeted her by name, smiling or waving at her. She was an excerpt, after all.

Signet willingly returned the smiles and let herself be sidetracked by people needing conversation or comfort until it got too late and she finally had to go see Cass or know that she was being a coward.

The door to the bridge of the Tides was open when she arrived. Not at all as busy as she'd expected it to be. Cass wasn't a divine, but from what she'd heard, they--no, that wasn't correct-- _ann_ had begun taking up many of the appropriate duties. Signet didn't know what that meant for anns mental health, but she was about to find out.

There was a sputter from inside the bridge that turned into a riotous laugh. Signet stepped closer to peer inside and found that Echo was the source of the laughter, their head thrown back, their feet propped up on the meeting table in the center of the room.

Signet's first impulse was to be offended on Cass's behalf. She stuffed the impulse down. Going with her impulses with regards to Cass had been what caused problems in the first place.

She cleared her throat and knocked on the doorjamb. Echo turned their head to look, still grinning. Then the humor dropped off their face and for a split-second, Signet understood why some people found Echo frightening.

The dark look passed in an instant, in favor of a deliberately casual expression. Echo laced their fingers over their belly and rather pointedly uncrossed and recrossed their legs. Signet allowed her nose to wrinkle before she gave Echo a warm smile.

"Hello Echo." She looked upwards, vaguely towards the ceiling, "Hello Cass."

"Hello," Cass replied. It was a friendly enough greeting. It was more than Signet rightfully deserved.

"Yeah hey Signet," Echo replied, "What seems to be the haps? Cascara doesn't need me or anything, does she? She usually just messages me directly."

"No," Signet assured them, "Not that I know of. I'm actually...may I--?" Signet stopped herself before she asked if she could speak with Cass alone. The answer to that was bound to be no, as it should be. "My apologies, what I mean to say is that I've come to." She looked up again, away from Echo so that she could address Cass, "To apologize to you. I've treated you ill and you deserve an apology."

"Told you," Echo said, and the speakers made a strange fizzling static noise before Cass replied.

"Oh me of little faith."

Echo stretched out a hand to trace over the holo-projectors of the meeting room table, like they were offering a reassuring touch. "I can go or I can stay. It's up to you."

Cass was silent for a long moment. Then the door behind Signet closed and one of the holo-projectors lit up.

"Please take a seat."

Signet took the offered seat with a murmured thank you. Echo put on their eyepatch, feigning distraction, so Signet took a deep breath and dove in.

"I'm sorry Cass. For the distress I caused by bringing Cinder to tend to you without your consent, and for refusing to treat you like a person. No," she decided a moment later, "Not for refusing to treat you like a person, that was a symptom of the main issue, not the cause. For refusing to believe you _were_ a person. I sincerely apologize. I should not have done that to you. I should have listened to you when you said you were a person, and acted accordingly."

A door in the wall opened up. Signet gave the door a bemused frown, but Echo seemed to know what was happening, because they got up and headed for it. They made a brief detour to give Signet's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, offering her a warm little smile. The door closed behind them and Signet was left alone in the bridge., thoughtfully gazing at the seamless wall where a door had been only moments ago.

"I didn't realize you and Echo were so close."

"Echo's an amazing person. I admire them greatly."

Signet couldn't help but smile, reaching her hand out to rub circles into the meeting room table like she was touching an organic person.

"Now is a very frightening time to be a citizen of the fleet," Signet told Cass, "Our divines are all dying, have all died. With the exception of Empyrean and now Belgard has revived. There used to be 300. Now there's only two."

"So when I showed up, it was almost like having another one."

"Yes. It doesn't excuse my actions, but I hope it explains them."

"Echo says that you're an important person in the fleet?"

"Yes. For my proximity to a divine. I am an excerpt and my duty is to the people of the fleet. We just don't usually get new members in such a dramatic fashion." She looked up, "I can only hope that you and I can become friends, in time."

"I hope we can become friends as well. If only because I need your help."

"You do?"

"Echo knows the fleet, and I know how to lead people, but neither of us knows how to be a leader in the fleet."

Signet couldn't help but smile, "From what I've heard, the two of you are doing amazing so far. But what can I do to help further?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks are due to harpydora for letting me steal an AuDy scene, and to will o'oak for helping me figure out a Euanthe scene. And to both for being my consistent cheerleaders throughout the writing of this story--I couldn't have done it with out you! ^_^

"What do you want people to feel when they look at you?"

Echo smiled at the silence this question produced. It was such a _strange_ thing to be asked, but Grand Magnificent was the best mech designer in the fleet. He'd make Cass an incredible chassis, if that was what Cass wanted.

"I," Cass finally began. Then, "It doesn't work like that….does it? Don't you need to know what I want it to be able to _do?_ "

Grand dismissively waved off the question. "That's just mechanical. Easy stuff. The important thing is what do you want people to _feel_ when they see you? Terror, awe, do you want them to feel protective or protected, tell me what's in your _heart_ , Cass--can I call you Cass? I'm gonna call you Cass."

"Just answer the question," Echo laughed, "This is how Grand works, Cass." Cass was silent for a moment longer.

"I'm not a divine. Everyone thinks I am, but I'm really very much not."

Grand began sketching a design in the air, nodding and making a listening noise.

"I was a military doctor before. I wasn't the best doctor you ever met, but I was good enough. A rigger pilot."

"Rigger's a type of mech," Echo informed Grand when Cass fell silent for a moment. Grand dismissed the design he'd been working on and started over again. And since Cass seemed to have stalled out, Echo added, "Cass was a princex, too. Apostolisian royalty."

"In exile," Cass added, "My oldest sibling unexpectedly survived their battle wounds from the war, and I was no longer needed."

"Tell me about exile," Grand commanded, adding a line to his design, squinting, then dismissing the entire thing to start again.

"My old commander helped me smuggle my mech away from home to Counterweight, where I lived for the next few years, doing odd jobs."

Grand's design still didn't at all resemble what Echo thought Cass might look like. None of the designs looked remotely humanoid beyond being bipedal--Grand _was_ a mech designer--but the designs didn't at all look like Cass, Echo thought.

"That doesn't look right," Echo voiced their concerns.

"Not really," Cass agreed.

Grand sat back, critically eying his design. "What's it missing?" The silence stretched so long that Echo took off their eyepatch to make sure it was working and then put it back on, to make sure Cass wasn't trying to speak privately to them. Ann wasn't.

"Cass?" Echo said.

"Sorry. I just. I needed a moment. I was looking for….there's no information about them."

"Who?" asked Grand.

"The Chime. My coworkers. My friends. I'm the last person who knows about them, and I'm not really a person anymore." There was a staticy buzz that went from very quiet to gradually louder. Not like Cass was laughing or annoyed. Something different.

"Cass?" Echo said again.

The buzz faded and stopped, "Sorry. I'm fine."

Ann sounded so vulnerable.

"There was this one time AuDy asked me to come help them do some repairs on the Kingdom Come. They stuck their hand in a vent and came out with some bits that probably should have still been attached to the ship." The speakers fizzled with Cass's amusement as ann tried to laugh into a voice synthesizer not made to accept laughter. "Then they handed the pieces to me and walked off. They didn't need my help for that. They just….wanted me around and didn't know how to ask."

Grand began sketching in the air. It didn't take long to figure out that it was supposed to be a synthetic person with their hand in a ship's panel. AuDy.

"AuDy's bigger than that," Cass told Grand, who made the adjustment.

Grand didn't make the image too detailed--there was no way for him to know what AuDy looked like, but Cass mentioned other important details: a protective vest that said Automated "Because AuDy didn't bother to take that part off," the speakers fizzled again as Cass laughed, and sunglasses, given to AuDy and hooked into the vest because AuDy had no face to wear them on.

"Orth Godlove gave AuDy the Kingdom Come," Cass continued when Grand finished sketching AuDy. "He was a low-level bureaucrat when we first met him. We didn't know at the time that he was a rigger pilot who fought with Jace Rethal and Addax Dawn in the Golden War."

Grand began sketching an older man and when Cass didn't get the response ann had clearly been expecting, ann bitterly added, "Neither of you have any idea who Jace Rethal or Addax Dawn are. Right."

"Tell us about Orth first," Echo suggested. Cass did. Orth's picture turned out to be the man in what Cass called a memory den. It seemed to be rather like Contrition's Figure, but without a mercy officer to guide the person through their memories.

After Orth was Jace Rethal. He and Addax Dawn were, as implied, military heroes. "I didn't pay as much attention to him in the memory den as I should have. Today, I honestly don't remember what the real man looked like, just what he looked like in his own memories." Cass eventually described Jace as another pilot, younger in Cass's memories than Orth, even though the two should have been peers. Jace's sketch featured him hanging out of a mech that Cass spent several painstaking minutes trying to get Grand to recreate in great detail. It was apparently very important.

Cass didn't need to explain that the mech piloted by Addax Dawn was important. It contained a divine. Peace. Echo had never heard of the divine, but Cass had come to know it well during anns time in the memory den with anns friends. But in the end, a lot of Cass's description of Addax was in contrast to annemself, "It was very noticeable, the ways his body was different from mine." The sketch featured Addax in the cockpit of Peace, but at rest. Comfortably enjoying his time with his divine.

Next was Cass's sibling Sokrates. "Ol is--was--the leader of the Golden Branch Demarchy and ol hated it. Ol was never trained to lead our people. Euanthe was supposed to be the next Apokine, and by the time tea were injured, Sokrates had already been exiled as a traitor. I was just getting my feet wet as a doctor when Sokrates defected. But when ol came back, ol."

That low buzzing started again, then Cass spoke over it, "Ol killed our parent who was Apokine. I understand the necessity of it, but it was….very hard to deal with. I think ol was preparing for battle last time I saw olm. I could be wrong."

The sketch of Sokrates was an older Apostolisian standing behind a desk with papers in hand, gesturing as if giving directions to someone off-screen.

After Sokrates was Euanthe, whose sketch featured an injured Apostolisian, older than Sokrates, sitting at a dinner table with their hand politely over their mouth as they laughed. Then Cass's mentor, Koda Whitegloves, in a military hospital, tending to someone. After Koda was Aria Joie, who sounded an awful lot like Gig, personality-wise. Cass remembered her in battle, so she got a battle pose. Her wife Jacqui Green got a battle pose, too, while blueskinned Mako Trig sat and typed at a holo-display. Mako's friend Lazer Ted got a picture in which he grinningly showed off a handful of fake IDs, and Cass's friend Maxine smiled out over a garden in profile, the flowers in the garden echoed by the flowers on her headscarf.

In total, Cass had described twelve people who it was important to ann that history not forget. With those sketches to provide context, Grand designed a new chassis for Cass.

The finished product looked like Cass.

Probably nothing like what Cass had looked like when ann was alive, but in the same way Grand's sketches probably failed to resemble Cass's friends: It was a bipedal bot done in iridescent blue with asymmetrical green accents in spotty patches all over, a pair of finlike protrusions sweeping back from the cheeks. It had no real face beyond a camera for sight, but it did have hands with carefully articulated fingers. It had legs as well, rather than the wheels typically favored by synthetic people, and was very sturdy in spite of that. Wide vents cut into the sides resembled gaping gills with more green splotches inside, and overall, it looked like nothing Echo had ever seen before, but exactly like Cass.

The sight of it made Echo gasp aloud when it finally came together.

Grand looked smug, "And what do you think, Cass?"

"It…looks like me. Not how I looked when I was….is organic the right word, Echo?"

Echo startled out of staring at the chassis to assure Cass that 'organic' was indeed the correct word for what Cass had been.

"Organic, then. It doesn't look anything like I did when I was organic, but it does….it does look like me."

"It's incredible," Echo whispered. Grand gave a dismissive scoff before insisting that of course it was.

Then Cass had a request.

"Grand, can you do one more sketch for me?"

"Of course."

"Echo, I'll need your permission for this."

Echo gave the ceiling a bemused frown. "Why do you need my permission to have Grand draw another of your friends?" Grand snickered and then Echo thought about the last few minutes of conversation. They felt their face heat.

"....what?"

The word fell out, quieter than Echo had quite intended it to be.

"If I am making a record of people I do not want to forget, you are on the list."

Echo couldn't help but duck their head and smile, gently stroking a turned-off holo-display. "You have my permission."

"The last time you all went to Quire," Cass began, addressing Grand Magnificent, "Echo came back hurt."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry everybody, I got completely sidetracked by another fandom and it was my own danged fault! Next week will be the last chapter and then I can start on the next installment! ^^;;;;

While Cass waited for Grand Magnificent to finish making anns body, Echo quietly began moving into the excerpt room. It was a slow, gradual process, and not even one that Echo intended to be a process.

They just spent more and more time in the bridge of the Tides, hanging out with Cass and sometimes April or Signet. The two women were apparently friends and Echo frequently walked in on them in the bridge, discussing the psychology or history of some decision Cass didn't understand.

There was so much Cass didn't understand about how the Divine Fleet worked, or about how the Tides of Harmony worked, that Echo ended up spending hours explaining things to Cass, researching with Cass, and learning a bit themself. Often that was with Signet's help, but sometimes not.

Plus, the people of the Tides had apparently decided that divine or not, Cass was best-equipped to solve their problems. Ann really wasn't, but ann also didn't have the heart to turn them away. Hence, Echo was needed yet again. If only to help interpret the issues to Cass. Signet was an invaluable aid to both of them in that again.

Not that Echo minded helping Cass, staying with annem. It was nice. Comforting. It felt like having someone constantly at your back, but in a good way. But it also meant that Echo started bringing clothes, so they'd have something to change into after passing out in the excerpt room. Then they had to bring toiletries, because what was the point of putting clean clothes on a dirty body? Sword maintenance supplies were next, because they liked taking care of their sword.

Next thing they knew, their parents were asking them if they were planning to move out.

"What makes you think I'm moving out?" Echo asked.

Fugue gave them a mysterious smile, "Well, you've been on the Tides so much, but you're almost never actually home these days."

"I've been busy," Echo objected, "Helping Cassander!"

Ballad punched Echo in the shoulder, "I think that's mom's _point_ , Echo."

Echo punched him back, "Cass isn't--"

"Isn't a divine," Ballad and Legato chorused at Echo, making their parents laugh and Echo sulk.

"I don't say it that much."

"No, just every other sentence," Ballad teased, earning him another thrown punch. He blocked this one and countered, and Echo did the same. Soon, the siblings were almost sparring at the table, only Litany's arm came down between them.

"Not at the dinner table, children! I made my world-famous stew! Eat some!"

Echo and Ballad made faces at each other around their father for a few moments before returning to the meal. A few bites later, Echo frowned at their brother.

"Wait, what do you mean, 'that's what mom means'?"

Legato covered her face with both hands and made a long-suffering sound. Ballad just grinned at Echo.

"Ann doesn't have to be a divine for you to want to spend time with annem."

"In fact," Litany added, "That'd be a higher point in you wanting to spend time with annem, knowing you."

It suddenly occurred to Echo that their family thought they were dating Cass. And then they realized they wished it were true. They focused on their food with the diligence of the incredibly avoidant. They didn't want to think about this. They hadn't been thinking about it, but now they realized how much they ached for that kind of relationship with Cass.

Would Cass even be willing to return their feelings? Cass was miserable in the divine fleet, as a synthetic person. How could ann ever want Echo like that? Plus, everyone would call Echo anns excerpt, and Cass would hate that so much. Just because ann was willing to let them crash in the excerpt room when they were tired, it didn't mean ann felt deeper emotions for Echo than pity.

But now that Echo was thinking about it, that wasn't the only thing Cass did for them. Cass always cleared Echo's path to the bridge, and never put anything in the mirage if ann knew Echo was around. Ann didn't want to leave them out. Cass knew Echo's favorite foods and Echo had gotten more than a few laughing comments from nearby shop owners that they hadn't even known they were going to run out until Cass notified them.

Cass turned to Echo before anyone else when ann had questions, and trusted their judgement above anyone else's. No matter where on the Tides Echo was, if they said Cass's name, Cass answered immediately. They didn't have to wait for Cass's filters to let ann know Echo wanted annem. Not like everyone else had to wait. Cass wanted to commemorate Echo on anns new chassis, even! But that was all just because Echo was the first person to acknowledge Cass's personhood. Wasn't it?

"Echo?"

They looked up to find Ballad nudging them in the arm. Everyone else was talking, like the conversation had gone on without them.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"I was going to, when I noticed you were off with Curiosity."

Echo gave a weak laugh, "I guess I was a bit out of it. I just. I never thought of annem that way before. Our relationship. I can't even say there _is_ a relationship to think of."

Ballad shrugged, "Maybe you can't, but everyone else can. It's obvious that the two of you are close."

"I can't just assume we're _that_ close, Ballad, you know that."

"I know, I know, but it's worth talking about, isn't it?"

Echo shook their head uncertainly, "I can't put that on annem."

"Cass cares about you," Ballad replied, "And I think ann wouldn't mind at all." The use of Cass's name was deliberate. Cass's filters prioritized the nickname because Echo was one of a very few people on the Tides who used it. In a few hours, Cass would become aware of Ballad's words, and would undoubtedly listen to the rest of the conversation for context because anns name had been said. That was how ann knew what people needed.

Echo felt their face heat with embarrassment and when they punched Ballad in the shoulder hard enough to bruise, he let them.

Their father called for truce and before Echo knew it, they were enjoying their family's company again. They didn't let themselves think about Cass or how Cass might feel about them until they left dinner. It was only when they were heading back towards the bridge of the Tides that they considered their family's words.

They pulled on their eyepatch, "Cass?"

_Yes?_

The response was almost immediate. It was a direct message because the space was too large for Cass to speak to Echo directly. Ann would disturb people if ann tried it. Anns text was a gentle, curly font. Like ann was trying to be gentle and patient, trying to give Echo time to get their thoughts together.

They stuffed their hands in their pockets, their shoulders hunching up around their ears, "Did you listen to my conversation with my family at dinner tonight?"

_You looked upset, so only a little bit after you said my name and after Ballad said it._

"Well, that was kind of you, but it makes this way more awkward for me, no offense."

 _Full offense taken,_ Cass replied in a bold sanserif font.

Echo laughed, their shoulders relaxing. Right. It was still just Cass.

Cass's font turned curly again. _Do you want me to listen?_

"No, you don't have to. I'll tell you." Echo nodded at a few people as they passed, waiting until no one was close to continue.

"My family's encouraging me to date you."

 _Oh._ The font was almost unreadably curly. Cass was embarrassed. Echo smiled sympathetically.

"Or rather, they think I already am. Dating you."

_Was that what upset you?_

"No, Ballad being a jerk and calling you was what upset me. I wanted a little more time to think."

Cass's font turned into a narrow sanserif, _Do you still need more time?_

"No. I've. All this time, I was sort of under the impression you didn't really know what it meant that you opened the excerpt's room to me, but you did, didn't you? I forget, sometimes, because there's so much you don't _know,_ that you're really, really smart. Smarter than me, probably."

 _Better-equipped to lead, at least,_ Cass replied, in a round, curly font. Echo huffed their amused agreement. _I thought you understood that I knew._

"I think I did," Echo admitted, finally reaching the bridge. The door opened just as Echo reached it, gracefully closing behind them as the excerpt room door opened before them, spilling warm light out into the blue of the meeting room. "I just didn't believe it."

Echo stepped into the doorway, one hand on the doorjamb, taking a moment to bask in the moment.

"Mom and Ballad are going to be unbearable when I start moving my things here."

"I'm sure you'll be just as unbearable," Cass replied. Echo laughed and walked in, flopping into the acetic bed. "I'm not sure I'll be the best datemate--I haven't been synthetic very long."

Echo rolled over onto their back, laying their palm on the wall next to the bed, "You'll manage. You've managed so far."

"And I have you to teach me."

Echo laughed, "Oof, you're in some real trouble if I'm the one you're learning how to be synthetic from."

"Good _night_ , Echo," Cass replied, pointedly turning off the lights.

"Night, Cass," they said, chuckling to themself as they got comfortable.


	10. Chapter 10

Cass would never be able to figure out how Grand managed it, but anns new chassis showed a different image depending on where you stood.

Echo was on the front, where Cass had requested they be. If Echo moved to their own right to circle Cass's chassis, they would be able to see Maxine, AuDy, Jacqui, and Aria, in that order. In the back were Orth, Koda, Euanthe, and Sokrates. Then, coming from the back to the front on Cass's right-hand side were Mako, Lazer Ted, Jace, and Addax. Cass didn't know what it said about ann that Grand had put Addax, Echo, and Maxine across anns front. Maybe it said more about Grand, but ann didn't know.

What ann did know was that Echo didn't get any more real estate than anyone else, but anyone looking at Cass directly from the front would see them.

In the sketch of Echo (which was more detailed than any of the others by virtue of the fact that Grand knew what Echo looked like), Echo was framed in a doorway, their faintly smiling face awash in warm golden light, shining into the blue darkness behind them.

"Everyone looking at you is going to see my face," Echo declared, their mouth twisting into an interesting shape. They didn't sound or look upset, but Cass still assured them that Grand could move it if they didn't like it.

Echo looked at Grand, who gave a dismissive sniff, "I'm not changing it." That seemed to reassure Echo and they huffed out an amused laugh, shaking their head.

"I suppose it's fine. Just unexpected."

"So this is Euanthe," April murmured from the back of Cass's chassis. Cass hadn't thought ann had spoken of tea so much, but apparently ann had.

"And Aria," Signet agreed from her spot next to April, slowly reaching out a hand towards the image. She paused and glanced at the ceiling, "May I touch?"

"I'm not sure your hand won't go through," Cass replied, "But you can try."

Then Cass's sensors caught something coming from Quire. Not an explosion, but something abnormal was happening there. The next thing ann knew, ann got the impression of terrible speed happening in slow motion. Echo leaned against anns chassis, Signet against the wall. April lost zer feet and sat down where ze stood, while Grand stumbled over to a corner to vomit.

What….?

When the ship was still again, Echo looked up, "Cass? Do you know what that was?"

Cass knew this star system. Ann knew the planet the Tides had come to a halt near. They were falling into its gravity and Cass wasn't sure ann could stop it. Ann wasn't sure ann wanted to stop it. It couldn't be real. It couldn't be true. But the long-range scanners confirmed it.

"Cass?"

Echo's voice brought Cass's attention back to the meeting room and ann activated the holo-displays at the meeting table as one, to show the star system. Predictably, none of the Divine Fleet natives knew where they were, even when they came over for a closer look.

But Cass did. Ann could have cried, and the awful buzzing noise that came with the desire to cry began. Echo looked up from where they stood with Signet, hemming and hawing over the unfamiliar map.

"Cass, what's wrong?"

"There's an incoming call," Cass replied. It wasn't even a lie. There was a hail from the planet.

An Apostolisian youth requested their clearance codes. They didn't have any. On the bridge, Echo exchanged confused glances with Signet and April, who'd gotten to zer feet. Grand was still in the corner, groaning and trying to recover.

It took Cass all of a second to realize the problem. None of them spoke Apostolisian. Somehow, becoming part of the Tides had given Cass the ability to communicate with the inhabitants without taking anns ability to understand Apostolisian.

Cass hastily provided Echo with a phonetic pronunciation of what Echo wanted to say: "We're from outside of the Golden Branch System and we would like a meeting with your leaders."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this one, but Secret Chord is not done, not by a long shot! Stay tuned for more to come.


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